From avalonb@nwol.net Thu Jun 11 22:29:51 1998 Date: Sun, 03 May 1998 14:52:54 -0700 From: Avalon Bruce To: permaculture@listserv.oit.unc.edu Subject: Re: dirt or Earth? in re: jack's latest brilliant additions to this list, i offer my own snippet of the HUNDREDS of books on my shelves, if i were banished to an island and could take ONLY ONE tome, it would be Peter Russell's "The Global Brain" -- speculations on the evolutionary leap to planetary consciousness -- the Earth has always KNOWN all was connected; now,it's time the two-leggeds woke up and figured this out, too! if ANYONE, al gore included, has ANY doubts bout this 3rd 'rock' from the sun being a sentient entity OR that there's a connection between the individual consciousness and the fate of the planet, they should read this. Rumi may be more succinct, but Russell is brilliant; both are profound in their own ways Jack Rowe wrote: > > Aw, gee, Scott... while I GREATLY enjoyed the mental image of you 'doing > the sweet pea frug' (a personal favorite), still I wonder who will be the > arbiter(s) of what 'resembles permaculture'? As the great Mr. Murphy has > allowed, once you've opened a can of worms, the only way to re-can them is > to use a larger can... and the permaculture can is wide open! Is this an > area where we might wisely advocate decentralization? > > Many's the time I've heard 'spiritual' ideas eschewed as 'not > permaculture'. I personally disagree heartily, and see the entire > disastrous (no pun intended, fellow etymologists) situation before us now > as symptomatic of a culture which has disowned the interconnectedness of > which Marsha spoke. Can any system of thought that does not consider > everything to be interconnected allow us to survive? Can we form a > 'permanent agriculture' without considering all ecosystems interconnected? > (I believe we have the answer to this one right in front of/all around us > at this very moment). Can we form a 'permanent culture' without considering > all around us--animal, plant and human--to be One? > > In the physics which died a universe-shattering death 95 years ago and yet > continues to haunt us, disturbances in the earth's 'balance' or 'aura' or > 'soul' were not given credence. In the new, more accurate physics which > proved itself with fusion reactions turned from Solar beneficence to > diabolical destructiveness, such a level of interconnectedness, such a > level of conscious participation by supposedly 'material' objects, is not > only allowed but implicit (just ask Mr. Schrodinger's Cat). The old idea of > 'separateness' is myth... didn't work then, won't work now. > > It's finally commonly accepted that what we've perceived as 'matter' is in > fact almost-infinitesimal and yet mind-bogglingly powerful knots of energy. > Less acknowledged is that what we've perceived as 'energy' is actually form > mysteriously-coalescing within an inherently formless 'quantum field'. > Coalesced by what or Whom? For Consciousness to be the root of Form is > perfectly plausible--or more accurately, as wonderfully insane as any other > idea which attempts to explain Experience. Rumi says "Mysteries are not for > solving, the eye goes blind when it only wants to see Why", and certainly > the question of what causes the quantum field to shape itself into energy > and then form is firmly within the camp of Mystery. God, Great Spirit, The > Way Things Are, Mr. Einstein's Ghost... what answer can be more or less > fantastic than any other? > > The idea that the Earth is a living thing, that it feels and has an > emotional 'balance' which can be disturbed by violence is no more > far-fetched than the idea that the earth is a rock, and we upon it cosmic > accidents. Could be one, could be the other--who cares? I think that if we > consider the Earth to be a living, feeling being, we ourselves have a much > greater chance of surviving the addicitive stupidities that have directed > our efforts and ideas thus far. > > [Insert your favorite list of 'Old Age'-caused environmental/human > tragedies here--I hate to bum myself out so early in the evening]... give > me the New Age any day! > > Jack 'Fruitcake' Rowe -- The Earth is not given to us by our parents. It is loaned to us by our children.